'How I Met Your Mother' to Reveal the Titular Mother in Ninth and Final Season

January 31, 2013 02:15:13 GMT

CBS has officially renewed the Craig Thomas and Carter Bays-created series, with all series regulars returning for the last installment.

"How I Met Your Mother" will return for its final season. CBS officially announces that it has renewed the long-running sitcom for a ninth season, which will also be the last for the hit comedy series.

"Through eight years, 'How I Met Your Mother' has mastered the art of leading-edge comedy, emotional water-cooler moments and pop culture catchphrases," CBS president Nina Tassler says in a statement. "We are excited for Carter, Craig, Pam Fryman and this amazing cast to tell the final chapter and reveal television's most mysterious mother to some of TV's most passionate fans."

All series regulars, Josh Radnor, Jason Segel, Cobie Smulders, Neil Patrick Harris and Alyson Hannigan, as well as creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas will return for the last chapter. "We're thrilled to have the entire and incredibly talented How I Met Your Mother cast back for one final season to bring the series to a proper close," Dana Walden and Gary Newman, Chairmen of 20th Century Fox Television, gush.

They add, "Carter Bays and Craig Thomas are masterful and hilarious storytellers, and we have no doubt that they will guide one of the greatest comedies of the last decade to a gratifying conclusion when they finally reveal the identity of the Mother."

Before the renewal is confirmed, Smulders hinted that the ninth season was definitely happening. "It's a tricky thing. There's a lot of people involved in a decision like that. But luckily everybody made the same one and came on board," she told E! Online.

The Robin depicter went on sharing, "I sort of thought it was going to happen and then around the holidays when it started feeling like, 'Oh, it might not [happen],' it made me really sad. Because it's the end of an era and 'How I Met Your Mother' has become like a second home to me. So it'll be nice starting season nine knowing this is it. Soak it in. Really be grateful and enjoy this last year."